Sergio Perez joined former Formula 1 star Jean Alesi in a very exclusive club by sticking his Red Bull on pole for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Mexican's performance was a great relief for his team after they watched a disaster unfold for Max Verstappen. He suffered a suspected drive shaft issues which left him unable to set a lap time in Q2, consigning him the 15th place on the grid for tomorrow's race in Jeddah.
Perez will be thrilled, especially considering how often he is forced to live in Verstappen's shadow. In taking pole, he also lived up to his reputation that he is a real force to be reckoned with on a street circuit.
It is just the second pole of his entire F1 career – the first also came at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit last year. So Perez is now only the second racer in the sport's history to take multiple pole positions, but all at the same track. The other is Alesi, who took pole at Monza for Ferrari in 1994 before doing it again three years later behind the wheel of a Benetton.
Speaking after the session, Perez said: "It was tricky. It was tricky that Q3, especially [after] not getting that second lap. That [first lap] was quite good, you know, it was quite clean, really clean.
"Nailing that lap, you really feel the Formula 1 cars coming alive in this place and yeah just maximising that lap was very important, you know, because with the issue we had into the final run it was really important as the track was improving.
"Jeddah, I enjoy it a lot. When you have a good car that you can push around this place, you really feel the F1 cars coming alive. And getting a clean, good lap, you know when you nail it. And yeah, that Q3 run one was quite a good jump.
"I had a good jump from all my previous laps and that meant that I was able to get the pole, because my second lap, I didn't manage to get it. I just had a front lock going into Turn 1. That has been really tricky."
Regarding Verstappen's misfortune, he added: "It's a shame. Max has been really strong the whole weekend. So hopefully tomorrow we can have both cars up there as you never know, with these cars, reliability issues can hit you at any time."
